Stoic perseverance, lesser-known Stoic texts, and decision-making models

Executive overview

When a cause is just, the Stoic answer is total commitment — even in the face of certain defeat. Cato's stand against Caesar illustrates that giving everything is itself a form of victory. The episode also addresses gaps in Stoic literature and the tension between Stoic rulers and early Christians.

You don't need to win to have done the right thing — you need to have given everything.

Cato and the meaning of giving your all

• Cato fought to preserve the Roman Republic against Caesar's ambition, knowing he would lose.
• He refused to flee, fold, or play both sides.
• His flaws were real: aristocratic, impractical, unwilling to compromise.
• He was more in the right than Caesar, who marched troops against his own country.
• The measure of his life was not victory but total commitment to a just cause.

Lesser-known Stoic reading material

• Beyond the "big three" (Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, Seneca), most other Stoic writing survives only as fragments.
• Musonius Rufus — Epictetus's teacher — left a set of translated lecture notes worth reading; topics include women in philosophy, exile, marriage, and practical daily choices.
• James Stockdale wrote short books drawing on Stoicism from his own experience.
• New imaging technology may eventually unlock papyrus scrolls preserved in volcanic ash at Pompeii, potentially recovering lost Stoic works.

Stoics and the persecution of early Christians

• Stoic rulers did not universally persecute Christians, but some failed to prevent or stop it.
• Junius Rusticus — Marcus Aurelius's philosophy tutor and effectively mayor of Rome — presided over the trial of Justin Martyr and ordered his execution.
• By contrast, Seneca's brother Gallio adjudicated a case involving Saint Paul and freed him.
• Rome persecuted Christians for political, not theological, reasons: Christians refused to acknowledge Roman gods or state supremacy.
• The Stoics had options — exile, symbolic punishment — and declined to use them; that failure is "to their eternal shame."

Decision-making and mental models

• Shane Parrish's Farnam Street blog and course cover mental models and decision-making frameworks.
• The question of whether people explicitly apply mental models in practice (vs. absorbing them intuitively) remains open.
• Annie Duke's work on decision-making is a recommended starting point for applied frameworks.